Bison sneak by Golden Eagles

Shawnee, Okla. (January 14, 2010) - The JBU men’s basketball team gave Oklahoma Baptist a good fight on Thursday night in Shawnee, but it wasn’t enough as the men fell 82-76 to the third ranked Bison. With the loss, JBU drops to 12-5 overall and 4-5 in the Sooner Athletic Conference.

Junior Andrius Mikutis led the Golden Eagles with 17 points, followed by junior Sam Bartlett with 16. Senior Davaughn Jackson, who was plagued with foul trouble, was held to 14 points. Freshman Coleson Rakestraw added 13.

For OBU (16-0, 8-0), they got 22 points 10 rebounds and six assists from Nate Brumfield and 21 points from Jerrod Tillmon.

The Bison led by as many as 14 in the first half, but the Golden Eagles managed to cut it to 40-32 before the break.

JBU opened the second period on a 5-0 run to get within three, but OBU responded and pushed it back to an 11 point game with under 12:00 minutes remaining in the game.

JBU could never close the gap from this point, as OBU held an 81-69 lead with under a minute left.

The Golden Eagles managed to score several buckets in the closing seconds to pull within six at the end.

“I told our boys that when you play a team as talented as [OBU], you can’t have breakdowns in your execution,” said head coach Clark Sheehy. “I thought there were several times where we missed assignments and didn’t do some of the things we talked about, and they obviously make you pay.”

For the game, JBU shot 52 percent (29-56) from the floor, but that was overshadowed by an OBU team that torched the net shooting 64 percent (29-45).

JBU also struggled getting to the foul line where they were 12-of-15. OBU, however, managed to knock down 18-of-23 foul shot attempts.

The Golden Eagles return home on Saturday to face St. Gregory’s (Okla.) in SAC play. Game time is set for 4 p.m.